Hughes and Kuroda Gain Split With Chisox

The Yankees couldn't have much uglier losses than they did Thursday and Friday nights, but thanks to Saturday's starter Hiroki Kuroda and Sunday's mound man Phil Hughes, the Yankees ended up with a split of their four game series with the White Sox.

Thursday's bullpen meltdown loss was forgotten in Friday's embarrassing 14-7 final. Rookie Adam Warren, outside of the 1st inning, was clearly overmatched. As YES analyst Lou Piniella pointed out, Warren's delivery was smooth and without deception. That allowed the White Sox hitters to easily pick up the baseball and mash it.

Unfortunately, Warren was sent down after the game and didn't get a chance to watch Kuroda on Saturday. The veteran put on a pitching clinic; Kuroda limited the White Sox to three hits and a walk over seven innings, and struck out 11 in the Yankees 4-0 win. He threw 107 pitches, 68 for strikes, and K'ed Alex Rios to strand the bases loaded in the 1st inning.

That was the start of 15 batters in row that Kuroda retired before he hit Kevin Youkilis in the 6th, perhaps in retaliation for White Sox starter Jake Peavy hitting Derek Jeter in the prior inning. The win improved Kuroda's record to 8-7, 3.17 as the right-hander has allowed just nine earned runs in his last 49 innings. After a rough start to the season, Kuroda is 5-1, 1.65 over his last seven starts.

Phil Hughes' start on Sunday didn't look to promising when the Yankees fell behind 2-0 in the 1st, but Hughes was fantastic after that in front of an Old Timers' Day crowd. He was at his best from the 4th through 8th innings when he retired 15 of 16 batters.

Hughes scattered six hits, walked one, and struck out eight in a 106 pitch effort. He's now 9-6, 4.29 and 5-1, 2.59 in his last six starts. Outside of his debacle against the Braves on 6/20 (4.1 IP, 6 ER), Hughes has allowed six earned runs in 37.1 innings pitched.

Home Run Derby continued in the Bronx to help both starters out. Robinson Cano, who hit 11 home runs in June, hit one on the month's final day and added another on the 1st of July. Curtis Granderson and Dewayne Wise added home runs for Kuroda, and Eric Chavez, who only had two home runs last year, hit his sixth of the year on Sunday.